Press Releases

Press Releases

01

January 1970

Telenor Velocity in collaboration with OPEN, held a session with Hussein Kanji

Interview: Investor, Advisor, Entrepreneur; Hussein Kanji

Earlier this week, Telenor Velocity in collaboration with OPEN, held a session with Hussein Kanji, the founding partner at Hoxton Ventures LLP with focus on consumer internet, financial technology and software investments. Hussein has been an advisor to a leading Indian media/entertainment company (Eros) and has invested in at least one unicorn in the making (Deliveroo).

Hussein joined us and answered questions about his views on funding startups, dos and don’ts of finding investments for new businesses and how his view of startups funding has evolved.

“Instead of looking for thousands of reason which will make an idea fail, we look for unique factors which will make an idea into a potential billion dollar industry. If the market comes up with a name for the industry category, we’ve succeeded. Keeping that in view, our goal would be to invest in the industry a year before the name even exists”.

Hussein runs an early stage European venture fund, with focus mainly across Europe. They have a total of $40 Million USD in capital for startups. They typically do first round Seed or Series-A investments where they aim to be the first investors for a budding business.

Hussein gave his views on generating capital in Pakistan, saying: “For a startup to take off in today’s economy, they need to focus on generating a positive cash-flow business by utilizing low cost of operation and the global customer base we have access to, from early days. This will give you the initial push towards achieving your goals and generating enough revenue to keep your business running before you can find an investor to increase your scale”.